A "darn cute" pink anglerfish with a frowny face has been filmed at the bottom of the sea floor of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) in the North Pacific Ocean.
The little pink anglerfish, from the genus Chaunacops, are sometimes known as "sea toads."
This individuals were caught on film by researchers with the Nautilus Live expedition, run by the Ocean Exploration Trust. The team was exploring the region off the northwest of the Hawaiian islands to get a better understanding of the ancient volcanoes that are found there.
"These little pink anglerfish might be the cutest thing you see today," a statement from Nautilus Live said. "These deep-sea bottom-dwellers are recognizable by their round bodies, short tails, and of course, their famous lures which are actually modified luminescent fin rays. It's not surprising to spot them here as studies have shown Chaunacops residing across the Pacific on volcanic slopes encrusted with manganese like the ones we're surveying for the first time ever."
The pink anglerfish was spotted by scientists using a remote operated vehicle. In footage released by the team, we see the anglerfish as the vehicle approaches it.
"They are darn cute with their frowns," one of the scientists can be heard saying.
"They look like they are having the worst day," another says. "Oh he's super frowny."
As they observe the anglerfish, they confirm it is a Chaunacops, saying if you look very closely at the individual, you can see its hook between its eyes.
"It is just the lure, it's not actually protruding from the head [...] it's tucked into a little crevice between its eyes and probably if the lights were off you would see some glowing."
They also say the fish has little legs.
Later in the video the team films a juvenile anglerfish, seeing a black individual. The scientists say it will turn red when it reaches adulthood. "That was a good fish moment," One of the team says.
They were diving to the southwest of the Don Quixote Seamount. These regions have never been surveyed before and the team was looking for high-density coral and sponge communities in the hope of finding species new to science.
The expedition to the PMNM ran between November 15 to December 6 and was a follow-up to the team's 2018 expedition. The PMNM covers almost 583,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean—larger than all of the national parks in the U.S. combined.
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